Final OK Adds $19M To PVC Pipe Purchasers' Ill. Price-Fix Pot

By Lauraann Wood

An Illinois federal judge gave her final blessing Thursday to a $19 million settlement between direct polyvinyl chloride pipe purchasers and a manufacturer they accused of participating in an illegal price-fixing conspiracy, sending their total recovery to just over $200 million to date.

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Airlines Hit With Broad Antitrust Suit Over Price Info Exchange

By Rachel Riley

Major airlines including Delta, United, American, Alaska, JetBlue and Southwest have kept airfares high by sharing proprietary dynamic pricing information through a revamped data hub operated by Airline Tariff Publishing Co., two ticket buyers claim in a proposed class action filed in Washington federal court Wednesday.

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DOJ Can't Tie State Grants To Immigration Enforcement

By Rae Ann Varona

A Rhode Island federal judge has granted a coalition of states' bid to permanently bar the Trump administration from conditioning federal public safety grants on the states' cooperation with the administration's immigration enforcement priorities, vacating the funding conditions as unlawful.

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Live Nation Cites 2nd Circ. Eyewear Ruling In Fighting Verdict

By Dorothy Atkins

Live Nation has told a New York federal judge that the Second Circuit's recent EssilorLuxottica ruling "bears on the market-definition issues" raised in Live Nation's post-trial motions challenging its antitrust trial loss, while enforcing states argued that the Ninth Circuit's recent NFL Sunday Ticket ruling reversal backs their trial win.

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DOJ Says Willow Bridge's RealPage Deal Needs No Tweaks

By Bryan Koenig

The U.S. Department of Justice responded to commenters pushing for changes to the rent price-fixing settlement it reached with Willow Bridge Property Co. LLC, arguing there's no need to add a distinction in the deal between rent renewals and first-time leases.

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FTC Claims Amazon Inflated Ad Auction Prices By 250%

By Dorothy Atkins

The Federal Trade Commission and 22 states have revealed new allegations against Amazon in their sprawling antitrust fight in Washington federal court over online search advertising auctions, including new details alleging Amazon secretly raised advertising prices by as much as 250% to increase its revenue by $87 million worldwide.

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Brief

Chicago DOJ Doc Deadline Moves, Probe Testimony May Too

By Lauraann Wood

An Illinois federal judge who is looking to explore the extent to which Chicago prosecutors misrepresented their work surrounding a push to indict six "Operation Midway Blitz" protesters extended the government's document production deadline again Thursday, as a prosecutor expected to testify asked the judge to consider postponing that upcoming hearing.

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Ill. Firm Accused Of Pushing Workers' Comp Deal On Client

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois woman who says she suffered permanent spinal injuries while working in healthcare has sued Chicago law firm Gordon Gordon & Centracchio, alleging it pressured her into accepting an inadequate workers' compensation settlement rather than pursuing permanent total disability benefits and failed to investigate potential medical malpractice claims.

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Home Depot, Others Fight Bid To Merge Tariff Refund Suits

By Jack McLoone

Home Depot said it opposed combining every proposed customer class action over increased costs from tariffs into multidistrict litigation, claiming there are too many economic differences between the suits. 

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Liberty Seeks To Dismantle Rental Car Coverage Class

By Carolyn Muyskens

Liberty Mutual urged a Massachusetts federal judge Thursday to decertify a nationwide class of policyholders claiming it arbitrarily limited a rental vehicle benefit, saying the class has no path forward after its damages theory was rejected.

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Toyota Hit With Class Action Over Hybrid Inverter Recall

By Jonathan Capriel

Toyota knowingly sold newer-model Camry and Corolla Cross Hybrids with a defective inverter bolt, causing loss of power or fire, according to a proposed class action that accused the automaker of teetering when it came to a recall.

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Series

Open-Water Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Swimming long distances in open waters is not necessarily an escape from my intellectual property practice, but a complementary discipline that similarly rewards sustained attention, intellectual curiosity, resilience and the ability to pursue a distant objective without losing command of the immediate task, says Christina MacDougall at Morgan Lewis.

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Controversial DOJ Civil Rights Division Leader Steps Down

By Alison Knezevich

Harmeet K. Dhillon, a U.S. Department of Justice official who instituted dramatic changes as leader of the Civil Rights Division, has stepped down from her role.

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Sullivan & Cromwell Brings On Weil Capital Markets Leader

By Isaac Monterose

Sullivan & Cromwell LLP has hired the co-leader of Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP's capital markets team for a capital markets partner role in its New York City office, the firm announced Thursday.

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Analysis

Racing Against Whistleblowers Could Cost Companies

By Phillip Bantz

The U.S. Department of Justice's new cash rewards program for tips on criminal fraud threatens to ramp up the pressure on companies to hurry internal investigations and quickly report suspected misconduct to the government before whistleblowers do, which could backfire in some cases, according to experts.

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Judge Albright's Do's And Don'ts For Patent Trials

By Dani Kass

Two months after former ​U.S. District Judge Alan Albright returned to private practice, he regaled a room of attorneys at the University of Texas School of Law on Thursday with lessons from his time on the bench.

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Trump's Hush Money Conviction Examined By Wary NY Panel

By Frank G. Runyeon

A New York State appellate court Thursday quizzed attorneys for President Donald Trump and state prosecutors over his hush-money conviction, exploring defense counsel's claims that the district attorney trespassed into federal jurisdiction by charging election violations and trampled on presidential immunity in a case "infected with multiple fatal errors."

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